The latest news of money laundering in Zambia is creating a lot of buzz with the media and the national news channels. Top lawyers and law firm owners such as Masozi M. Banda from Avik International and Sakwiba Sikota from Central Chambers have been accused of illicit cash transactions.
The level of corruption and illicit activities going on within the Zambian corporate and political fields can be understood from the fact that even top ministers and Presidential advisors have been named as accused in this money laundering act. For instance, one of the ministers from Zambian government kept several bank accounts with various commercial banks. He then went on to receive deposits in cash from various third parties and even withdrew cash amounts in huge volume at several occasions. Similarly, another Minister Yaluma received numerous kickbacks from notorious contractors for his services. Christopher Yaluma is the Minister of Mines and was Energy Minister when his account was highly active during money laundering scheme. Sources have also suggested that Yaluma also took money from the Dana Services, the latter being notorious for supplying sub-standards Land Cruisers to Zambian customers that were already broken and extremely vulnerable to the Zambian climate. Other prominent names included Jean Kapata and Dora Siliy who were accused of making cash transactions and depositing cash across bank accounts in international banks such as Bank of Chain and Dubai International Bank. It is suspected that the international accounts have been established with the objective of receiving money from sources coming from different nationalities such as China and Saudi Arabia.
Zambian Watchdog and Financial Intelligence Centre will continue to investigate this mass money laundering racket and will reveal information, names or other critical pieces as and when discovered. While it is a truly shocking even, condemned by common citizens as well as business magnates such as Dr. Rajan Mahtani, it is high time for the government to wake up and take strict actions against these corrupt officials and repeat offenders.